New York Knicks Should Have Low Priority On Re-Signing Toure' Murry

By Matt Constas

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Toure’ Murry played in just 51 games during his first season with the New York Knicks. While not having much of an impact, the Knickerbockers are reportedly interested in bringing back their unrestricted free agent guard for another opportunity in the Big Apple.

With the news of Darren Collison signing with the Sacramento Kings on Thursday, the Los Angeles Clippers are also intrigued by the talents of Murry to help replace the loss in their backcourt. With other teams around the league gauging their interest in the former Wichita State star, should the Knicks do their best to try and keep him?

Murry won’t be an expensive sign. He scored just 2.7 points per game just 7.3 minutes. He didn’t necessarily shoot the lights out either, shooting just 43.4 percent from the field and he only took 0.2 attempts from beyond the arc. In four years of college play with the Shockers, he shot just 40.4 percent from the field and 31.1 percent from three. These are not great numbers for a guy who is listed as a shooting guard. He made just under $500,000 last year, and I don’t see that going up too much. He wouldn’t put a big dent in the Knicks’ cap space, but do they even have a use for him?

The Knicks have a lot of depth at the guard position now, especially after acquiring Jose Calderon, Wayne Ellington and Shane Larkin from the Dallas Mavericks. In addition to those three, they drafted the 6-foot-6 Thanasis Antetokounmpo and currently have Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith and Tim Hardaway Jr. on their roster to play the two-guard position. They have a lot of depth here, so if they add Murry he would have to earn his playing time. He didn’t do that last year, so who knows if he will be able to do anything different this upcoming year.

Despite limited opportunities, Murry did actually play fairly well when he had the chance. In the three games where played more than 20 minutes, he averaged 10.6 points and three assists per game while making 4-of-5 three-point attempts. He has shown the potential, but stringing together consistent outings of solid playing time was an issue.

The Knicks clearly have a lot of work to do while rebuilding their team, and Murry might not be somebody who can help them turn things around on either side of the ball. For starters, I think if he was a priority to come back then the Knicks wouldn’t have made him an unrestricted free agent or added as much depth to their backcourt as they have so far this offseason. Murry has proved he has the potential to do good things in this league, but the Knicks will need to decide between some of these backcourt players because they can’t keep them all. Letting Murry go might be the easiest way for them to do so.